On the evening of 5th July, we held our annual Summer Ball. The event had been hotly anticipated for a number of months and had been preceded by a frantic flurry of dress buying, tuxedo hiring and hair styling! The student body had decided to hold the ball at Edgbaston Cricket Ground; a decision that proved to be an excellent one, due to the spacious function room we had been allocated and the excellent hospitality available.

Students started to arrive from 6pm and were first treated to a drinks reception on the balcony overlooking the pitch. The view overlooking the pitch was really fantastic and provided a beautiful panorama out over the Birmingham skyline. From our vantage point, The BT tower, The Cube, The Radisson and a number of other buildings were visible. The laid back reception gave everybody a chance to relax and enjoy the rare treat of a beautiful sunny evening before sitting down to dinner. It was obvious that everybody had started to relax after the massive stress of exams and for once it was nice to talk about non-academic matters. It was obvious that staff and students alike had made a massive effort in terms of dressing to impress; particularly striking were the number of bowties sported by the boys and the size of the heels worn by the girls!

Surprisingly, it was a number of the boys who were running late, so after a slight delay, we were able to sit down to our meal. Starter was summer vegetable soup, followed by a main of either pan fried chicken or ravioli. Our dessert (which was maybe the highlight of the evening) was a warm chocolate fudge brownie, served with ice-cream and chocolate sauce. As we finished our meal, Anjali, Sweena and Roop (our prom organisers) took to the microphone to announce the college awards for the year which had been voted for by the student body. There were some serious awards and plenty of not-so-serious awards which were awarded, which culminated in Nitesh and Sweena being “crowned” Prom King and Queen. Following on from the awards, Jaz gave a really moving speech about his time at MPW and after a few words from Riya, the DJ was able to crank up the volume and get the party started!

The rest of the evening saw some amazing dance moves from the students, a notable lack of dance moves from the teachers and a great time had by all. Once again, our access to the balcony overlooking the pitch was enjoyed by all, particularly as the sun was going down and gave a really nice place to chat away from the music.

All-in-all, the evening was a massive success and felt like a real release after the non-stop stress of exams. As with all end of year events, the evening had a feeling of sadness as farewells and good lucks were said to those who were leaving the college this year. However, there was a great deal of optimism for the future and a somewhat exciting anticipation of the next event we would meet at results day!!!